What's killing the animals at the Sao Paulo zoo?
'Serial animal killer' suspected
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A poisoned hawk is held by zoo veterinarians.
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SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Police are investigating a spate of unusual cases of apparent death by poisoning at the Sao Paulo Zoo, one of the world's largest, where 10 animals including an elephant have dropped dead in a two-week period.
"We can't explain what's happening," said biologist Fatima Roberti, a spokeswoman for the zoo. "We are letting the police sift through the clues."
What police know so far, according to Antonio Carlos Silveira of the Sao Paulo Civil Police Laboratory, is that three chimpanzees, three tapirs, three camels and an elephant were found dead between January 24 and February 6.
"These were apparently unnatural deaths," said Silveira. "These animals just dropped dead suddenly."
Police probed for motives among the zoo's 370 staff members and at first speculated about a possible "serial animal killer" spreading poison in animal cages after entering the zoo as an ordinary visitor.
But the current focus is on a more mundane cause -- rat poison.
Silveira said police lab specialists have taken samples of food found in the cages of the dead animals for chemical tests. They are also in the process of conducting detailed autopsies of all 10 of the dead animals.
"On Tuesday, the police experts found traces of three different rat poisons in the cages of the dead animals," said Silveira. "We are now comparing those traces to the viscera of the animals and to poisons used in 300 rat traps spread all over the zoo."
The theory being tested, Silveira said, is that rats spread small amounts of the poisons by defecating and urinating in the animal cages before dying of poisoning themselves.
However, even confirmation of that theory could lead to a further mystery. According to Roberti, in preliminary autopsies some of the dead animals showed traces of a deadly poison called sodium fluoroacetate, a substance used in powerful rat poisons that are banned in Brazil.
If sodium fluoroacetate were found to be the culprit, police would still have to find out who placed the banned substance in the zoo's rat traps, Silveira said.
"In principle, it takes about 10 days to conclude all the tests we've ordered, but we're speeding that up," Silveira said.
Meanwhile, staff are keeping a 24-hour watch over the zoo's 3,200 animals in hopes of fingering the "animal serial killer," if there is one.
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